161 



only three or four feet in length. It is said to 

 be very harmless ; it's habits however, as well as 

 it's form, much resemble those of the alligator, 

 or crocodilus acutus. It swims in such a man- 

 ner as to show only the point of it's snout, and 

 the extremity of it's tail ; and places itself at 

 mid-day on the bare beach. It is certainly nei- 

 ther a monitor (the real monitors living only in 

 the old continent), nor the sauvegarde of Seba 

 (lacerta ieguim), which dives and does not 

 swim*. Other travellers will decide that ques- 

 tion ; we shall here content ourselves with ob- 

 serving, it is somewhat remarkable, that L the 

 lake of Valencia, and the whole system of small 

 rivers, which flow into it, have no large alligators, 

 though this dangerous animal abounds a few 

 leagues olf in the streams, that flow either into 

 the Apure, or the Oroonoko, or immediately into 

 the Caribbean sea, between Porto Cabello and 

 La Guayra. 



In the islands that rise like bastions in the 

 midst of the waters, and wherever the rocky 

 bottom of the lake is visible to the eye, I recog- 

 nized a uniform direction in the strata of 

 gneiss. This direction is nearly that of the 

 chains of mountains on the North and South of 



* Cuvier, Regne animal, 1817, vol. ii. p. 26, 27. 



+ Direction of the rock hor. 3 — 4. Dip toward the North- 

 West. The mountains of the coast, and those of La Villa de 

 Cura, lie W. S. W. and E. N. E. 

 VOL. IV, M 



